Hammer to the Heart
by MaddHatta21
Summary: One of Gabriel's Wards gets wrapped up with the Winchesters, and subsequently trapped in Hotel Hell with them.
1. Hotel California

_**ELYSIAN FIELDS HOTEL... Muncie, Indiana**_

"Geeze Dean, think you could have parked at anymore of angle?!" I growled as dean pulled up in front of the only hotel within a fifty mile radius.

"Hey, shut it! It's raining alright?!"

"Guys! Let's get inside before we start arguing alright?"

Sam Winchester was ever the voice of reason.

After fourteen hours trapped in the Impala with Dean and Myself, it was a miracle the man still had any patience left at all.

"Ugh, I don't wanna run through the rain!"

It was pouring down out there.

A loud clap of thunder sounded, and it had me scrambling out of the backseat.

"Hey! Don't get water on the-"

Dean's protest went half heard as I bolted for the shelter of the hotel.

The boys weren't far behind me.

By the time we'd reached the front door, we were all soaking wet and miserable.

The lobby was much warmer, and I followed along behind Sam, only half- paying attention to the conversation between Dean and the desk clerk.

For the passed few weeks, I had been thinking a lot.

I had been thrown into this life.

Literally, I hadn't had a clue about monsters or demons or ghosts or any of that, not before the night I'd been thrown out a window and straight onto the brothers Winchester.

There hadn't been anything left for me to go back to after that incident; and so here I was... caught between revenge and the instinct to high-tail it out of there.

* * *

I rolled my eyes at Dean, eating everything he could get his hands on.

"So, about this storm..." Sam began, "does it feel-"

"Unusual? Yeah, I haven't seen this much rain my whole life! Plus, it just has this weird feeling about it like... I dunno it makes me nervous..."

Dean came over, mouthful of pie, "Sam, unpucker, man. Eat something."

I rolled my eyes again, Dean had the manners of a cave man.

"We should hit the road, Dean."

I nodded in agreement with Sam's statement.

"In this storm? I-it's-"

"It's biblical. Exactly. I-it's friggin' Noah's ark out there, and we're eating pie."

"How many hours of sleep did you get this week? What? Three? Four? Bobby's got his feelers out, okay? We have talked with every hoodoo man and root woman in 12 states."

I fidgeted, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable.

I scanned the room, trying to figure out what the source of the sudden feeling could be.

My skin felt like it was literally crawling.

I let out a shudder, that went unnoticed by the still conversing brothers.

"Yeah, well, I'm not giving up," Sam said, determinedly.

"Nobody's giving up. Especially me. We're gonna find a way to beat the devil, okay? Soon. I can feel it. And we will find Cas, we'll find Adam. But you are no good to me burnt out."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay."

"Come on, we've actually got the night off for once. Let's try to enjoy it."

I fidgeted again.

"What are you doing?" Dean half- barked.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, I hadn't realized just how distracted I was, I shrugged "I don't know, I just... I feel weird..."

His eyes narrowed, "Weird how?"

"Like, I don't know, like I'm not supposed to be here."

Dean rolled his eyes, "Not you too! Come on guys, just ONCE can we just sit down and enjoy the freakin' pie?!"

I sighed, still trying to find the source of my unease, "Sure Dean, whatever you say..."

* * *

I was unfortunate enough to witness a couple frantically trying to eat each others faces off in the hallway, as I followed the boys to their room.

Sam handed me a key to the room just down the hall.

"If you need us-" He held up his phone and I nodded.

Dean pointed at the couple, a grin sliding across his face that made Sam roll his eyes "What are you twelve?"

* * *

I tried my best to get some sleep, I really did.

It was hard to sleep when you wondered every few seconds whether there was something under your bed.

It wasn't just that, now that I was on my own, I felt really jumpy.

I considered calling Sam, but decided that if anyone in this scooby gang needed sleep, it was him.

I laid back, staring at the ceiling, and decided I'd give prayer a shot.

I hadn't prayed since I was eight, and only then because I'd been told by my imaginary friend MAX that it was a way to talk to him while he was away.

"Ummm... God? Or Max? or to whom it may concern? Er... I have no idea exactly how this works... am I supposed to uh... talk out loud or what?"

I pried one eye open and peered around the room, still just as creepy as before.

"Uh... look, I'm a little freaked out here so uh..."

"Long time no see kiddo!"

I fell off my bed with a yelp. My eyes shooting open to see an old familiar face.

"M-MAX?!"

He frowned slightly, "Well, sort of, the name's Gabriel!"

I should have been suspicious, wary, but for some reason I suddenly felt much safer.

"How did you get here?!" I asked more out of stunned curiosity than anything, but he winked at me, a huge grin spreading across his face, "Magic!"

He waggled his eyebrows, and it was such a peculiar look that I couldn't help but grin back.

"Haven't seen THAT in AWHILE!"

I raised an eyebrow, "What?"

He looked almost sad for a moment, then he moved towards me and ruffled my bangs, the exact same way he'd done when I was young.

His frown was long gone now, "Look at you! All grown up and fighting monsters!"

I opened my mouth to respond, confused, but he quickly shoved a candy bar into my mouth.

He turned away, gesturing around the room, "Can't say much for your hotel choice though,"

I shrugged, pulling the candy bar out of my mouth, "There wasn't much choice."

* * *

'Gabriel' had his feet propped up on the coffee table, the remote in his hand and Casa Erotica BLARING on the flat screen tv.

I winced for the hundredth time in the last hour, "You're almost as bad as Dean! Can you turn that down if you aren't gonna turn it off?"

"Relax kid! It's a good one!"

"Gabe!"

"Okay, okay, how else am I supposed to entertain myself?"

"I dunno," My stomach growled, "I'm gonna go find that buffet... want anything?"

"As much cake as you can carry!"

I snorted, moving towards the door.

"Hey kid, " I turned back to look at him, "Be careful alright?"

I grinned, "I'm only going down to the lobby, what could happen?"

* * *

The lobby was completely deserted when I got there.

My uneasiness suddenly became a full blown terror.

I ran for the door, trying to pull it open, it wouldn't budge.

I kicked it, "OF COURSE! DEAN _WOULD_ PICK THE FUCKING HOTEL CALIFORNIA TO STAY THE NIGHT IN!"

I ran over to the desk and tried to ring the bell.

No one came to the front.

I reached back for my glock, only to realize, I had left it out in the Impala.

"FUCKING BRILLIANT SARAH! Walk into a hotel with the Winchesters, unarmed... the HELL was I thinking?!"

The answer was, I hadn't.

I scanned the room for something I could use as a weapon.

I settled for tearing the leg off of a decorative table.

_Now, would probably be a good time to call Sam._ I thought suddenly.

I pulled out my phone, holding it up to speed dial Sam.

Suddenly everything went black.

* * *

I woke up with one killer head ache.

It didn't help that everyone was talking, "Kill 'em? What, so the angels can bring the back again?"

"I don't know what everybody's getting so worked up about! 'Cause it's just a couple of angels having a slap fight! There's no Armageddon. Everybody knows, when the world comes to an end, the Great Serpent Jormungandr rises up, and I myself will be eaten by a big wolf!"

I squinted, trying to see what was going on.

I saw a strip of plaid to my left and mentally groaned, _Winchesters._

"Here we go..."

"Oh yeah? And why is that? Because your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle? Ha! Give me a break!"

I shifted, slightly, trying to see if I was restrained somehow. Surprisingly I wasn't... but then, by the looks of it, there were so many people in the room it didn't seem like there was much need for restraints.

I felt Sam nudge me, and opened my left eye as discreetly as possible.

It seemed our captures were awfully occupied by each other for the moment. Yelling things about turtles and Valhalla.

Sam mouthed, "Let's go..."

I hesitantly nodded, slipping out of my seat without a single word from the arguing men at the table.

We were home free! The door was mere feet away!

Sam and Dean skidded to a halt as a chandelier came crashing down on us.

It landed right at our feet, shattering into a million pieces, just like our chance at escape.

A woman spoke up from the end of the table, "Stay. We have to fight. The archangels - the only thing they understand is violence. This ends in blood. There is no other way, it's them, or us."

"With all due respect, ma'am, we haven't even tried talking to them."

Personally I thought talking this thing out was a GREAT idea, maybe we could talk about letting the hunters get out of here.

Someone obviously didn't like that idea because the man who suggested it began to choke on his own blood.

I took an involuntary step towards him, only stopping when Dean's hand landed heavily on my shoulder.

Another man rushed to the dying guy's defense, "Kali!"

"Who asked you?"

I gulped, this woman was pretty freaking terrifying.

Suddenly the doors behind us swung open, "Can't we all just get along?"

My heart leapt into my throat.

I opened my mouth to say "Gabriel!"

To my surprise both Sam and Dean did too.

Even more surprising was the fact, that suddenly none of us could speak!

I looked to Sam and Dean for some sort of an explanation, only to find them just as stunned.

"Sam! Dean... It's always wrong place, worst time with you muttonheads, huh?"

Gabriel's eyes flickered to me for a moment, something in those bright butterscotch colored iris' made me want to shove him out of the room.

"Loki."

I spun around to get a look at the man who had spoken, "Baldur. Good seeing you too. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail."

Baldur didn't seem very pleased to see Gabriel. "Why are you here?"

"To talk about the elephant in the room."

The largest man at the table moved to get up, looking awfully angry, Gabriel pinned him with a look "Not you."

Then he addressed everyone else, "The Apocalypse. We can't stop it, gang. But first things first."

Gabriel turned towards, us, meeting my eyes for just a moment, and there it was again, that sad look. It made me want to reach out to him and tell him, everything was gonna be alright.

"The adults need to have a little conversation. Check you later."

I moved forward a step, only to suddenly find myself standing next to Sam and Dean in one of the hotel rooms.

* * *

I blinked, turning my eyes to the door as Dean spoke, "Okay! Did that - Holy crap!"

"Yeah, tell me about it. By the way, next time I say let's keep driving, uh, let's keep driving," Sam grumbled.

"Okay, yeah, next time," Dean agreed.

I moved towards the door.

"Alright, so what's our next move?"

"I don't know. Grab those poor saps outta the freezer, I guess? Bust 'em out? Gank a few freaks along the way if we're lucky?"

I had my hand on the door knob when suddenly-

"And when are you ever lucky?"

I spun around to see Gabriel sitting on the couch.

"Well you know what, bite me, Gabriel!" Dean snapped.

"Maybe later, big boy."

I held back the urge to snort and instead settled for a grin, hidden behind my hands.

Gabriel's eyes twinkled.

"I should've known. I mean this had your stink all over it from the jump."

"You think I'm behind this? Please. I'm the Costner to your Houston. I'm here to save your ass."

"You wanna pull us outta the fire?"

"Bingo! Those guys are either gonna dust you, or use you as bait. Either way, you're uber boned."

"Wow, 'cause a couple of months ago you were telling us that we need to "play our roles". You're uber boning us!"

I raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what the HELL Dean was talking about.

"Ohh... The end is still nigh. Michael and Lucifer are gonna dance the lambada, but not tonight. Not here," Gabriel's words seemed to carry some heavy weight.

"And why do you care?"

"I don't care. But, me and Kali we, uh, had a thing. Chick was all hands. What can I say? I'm sentimental."

I made a face, who in their right mind would-

Sam interrupted my thoughts "Do they have a chance? Against Satan?"

"Great, it's Fucking Hotel Hell..." I muttered to myself.

"Really, Sam?" Dean protested.

"You got a better idea, Dean?"

Gabriel spoke up again, "It's a bad idea. Lucifer's gonna turn them into finger paint. So let's get going while the going's good, hmm?"

I was all for getting the hell out of dodge.

"Okay. Great, why don't you just zap us outta here then?" Dean grumbled.

"Would if I could, but Kali's got you by the short and curlies. It's a blood spell. You boys are on a leash."

His eyes landed on me, "The girl on the other hand..." he raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, What does that mean?" Dean asked.

Gabriel smirked, turning his attention back to the boys, "It means it's time for a bit of the old black magic." He sprayed some breath spray into his mouth, and he did it so cockily that I wanted to laugh.

"Okay, yeah. Well, whatever. Well, we're gonna take the hors d'oeuvres in the freezer with us." Dean said.

"Forget it. It's gonna be hard enough sneaking you mooks outta here."

"They called you Loki, right? Which means they don't really know who you are?"

I'll cut off your hands.

I'd forgotten about that...

"Told you. I'm in witness protection."

_Okay... I guess that explains all the names..._

"Okay, well then how about you do what we say, or we tell the, uh, legion of doom about your secret identity. They don't seem like a real pro-angel kinda crowd."

I took a step away from Dean, just as Gabriel took a step towards him, "I'll take your voices away."

I gulped, putting a bit of distance between myself and all the testosterone.

"We'll write it down."

"I'll cut off your hands."

"Well then, people are gonna be asking, "Why are you guys running around with no hands?""

The whole room seemed to pause, caught somewhere between confusion and determination, "Fine." Gabriel said.

After a moment he said, "But first thing's first."

He turned to me, and held out his hand, "Do you trust me?"

I glanced over to Sam and Dean, both of them shaking their heads, then back a Gabriel.

He seemed so sincere in that moment, after a moment of hesitation i reached out and put my hand in his.

* * *

Suddenly I was standing outside in the rain again.

Gabriel dangled a set of keys in front of me, dropping them into my still outstretched hand. He closed my fingers around them.

I looked up, questioningly, and Gabriel met my eyes earnestly.

"Listen kid, I want you to get in that car and hightail it out of here. Don't look back. Don't stop for anything. Keep driving until this place is just a memory, understand?"

I hesitated.

"But what about-"

"I'll make sure the muttonheads get away too, you have my word."

I suddenly felt very bad about this.

"They'll think I abandoned them."

"Let them think that, you're better off as far away from those two as possible."

"They saved me."

"Then don't let all their hard work go to waste."

"But-"

"Listen to me, what's in there... what's about to happen... these boys are in way over their heads... Throw in one inexperienced hunter and it all goes to hell."

I glanced down at the keys, when I looked up Gabriel was gone.

My gaze flew back to the hotel; and then to the only other vehicle in the parking lot, a rusted baby blue pick up truck...

* * *

The road was dark.

The rain began to ease up the further away from the hotel I got.

I fidgeted in the seat, my foot pressing the gas pedal all the way down to the floor board.

Gabriel was right.

If Sam and Dean couldn't handle it, I was way out of my league.

The only thing left at that hotel for me was death.

Still...

The sign read, "Now Leaving Muncie"

I considered stopping for a moment.

"Don't stop for anything." Gabriel's words echoed in my head.

_All right. That settles it! _

The tires of the old pick up screeched as I jerked the wheel to the left.

The truck skidded into a donut, sending water flying everywhere.

* * *

Screams echoed into the night.

With a wince I shattered the window of the Impala, if I survived this, Dean was gonna kill me. I reached in and grabbed my gun, ignoring the pain in my arm and the blood dripping down my fingers.

I cocked it, "I'm coming boys!"

* * *

The ballroom was a disaster, there was blood everywhere.

More importantly, I could barely glimpse Sam and Dean huddled behind a table as Lucifer, looking just as Sam had described him to me when I had met him a month ago, threw Baldur to the ground.

"No one gives us the right, we take it," Lucifer said.

_Heh, guess I'm late to the party..._

Kali, in a literal flaming fury, charged Lucifer and subsequently ended up flying across the room when Lucifer retaliated. She landed on the floor to my right. He moved to crush Kali with his foot.

I took a step back, taking aim at the devil, and fired.

The room seemed to fall completely silent as Lucifer turned his gaze to me.

_Oh shit... I just shot SATAN._

He took a step towards me, "That wasn't very nice."

My brain was screaming at me to run, but my feet wouldn't budge!

_Oh shit! I'm gonna die! He's gonna kill me! God! I'm so fucking stupid! Why did I think this was a good Idea?!_

I closed my eyes, waiting for him to crush me.

Instead I heard a loud crash.

My eyes snapped open, and the only thing I could see was Gabriel's back, "Luci, I'm home."

My eyes moved down Gabriel's arm to the glinting silver blade in his hand, and suddenly I felt my heart sink into my stomach.

I peered around Gabriel just in time to see Lucifer striding towards us.

"Sarah! What the hell are you doing here!" Dean hissed from behind me.

I ignored him as Gabriel shifted, holding the blade up defensively as Lucifer came too close, "Not this time."

He put a hand on me, pushing me back behind him, because I seemed to have accidentally leaned to far to the side to see what was going on.

Gabriel reached down and pulled Kali up, never taking his eyes off of Lucifer.

"Guys!" He called back to the Winchesters, "Get them out of here."

The boys moved forward, Dean moving to escort Kali and Sam moving to usher me out the door, Gabriel covered our exit.

I stopped.

"Over a girl. Gabriel," Lucifer said, "really? I mean I knew you were slumming, but I hope you didn't catch anything."

Sam grabbed my arm pulling me away.

"Come on, he'll be fine."

"Will he?" I asked sadly, this didn't feel right, I couldn't see this ending well at all.

Sam tugged me along.

"I'm not getting in that thing," Kali said the moment we were outside.

"Just get in the car princess."

Sam let me go, in favor of opening the passenger side door for a quick get away.

I stopped walking, glancing back the way we had come.

I stepped backwards, back into the building, and no one even seemed to notice.

I felt a sting of betrayal as they sped off without me.

Suddenly a scream tore through the air.

It sent chills down my spine and ice through my veins, and before I even realized what I was doing my feet were carrying me past the front desk, barreling down the hallway to the ballroom.

Suddenly it didn't matter that Sam and Dean had left without me.

It didn't matter that Lucifer was waiting beyond those doors.

All that mattered was it was GABRIEL who had screamed.

It was Gabriel.

The same Gabriel who had been my childhood friend.

It seemed like all at once my mind was flooded with memories.

Being alone on the playground, and Gabriel appearing to cheer me up.

Lost in the forest and Gabriel taking my hand and leading me home.

A car spiraling out of control on a rainy highway and GABRIEL wrapping me in his arms to shelter me from the crash.

Gabriel shoving a candy bar in my mouth.

Gabriel and that stupid sad look on his face.

Gabriel who seemed to know everything, and still didn't ignore my prayer for help.

Gabriel who had come when I called and was now DEAD because of it.

Because when my feet finally stopped, that is what I saw.

GABRIEL sprawled out on the ground, the imprint of angel wings burned into the floor around him.

And LUCIFER, standing there, covered in blood and STARING.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't move, and then all at once I was moving, passed the destruction, passed the dead deities and puddles of blood, passed Lucifer; and then I was on my knees.

Wailing.

I touched his chest, praying to him.

"Please be breathing, please be breathing PLEASE!"

But he WASN'T.

Lucifer put a hand on my shoulder, "I didn't want too, he MADE me."

The words were sorrowful, almost like he was speaking to himself.

I jerked away from him, suddenly full of a rage I didn't know I was capable of.

I launched myself at him, roaring in fury and agony from what he had done, from what _I_ had done.

* * *

Suddenly I was crashing into Bobby Singer's couch.

I had been moved again, my heart seemed to freeze over, clenching in the hope that maybe Gabriel had survived after all.

"Stay here."

I felt my heart shatter, because it wasn't Gabriel's voice, it was Cas'.

And then he was gone too.

All the energy seemed to drain out of my body, and I slumped down onto Bobby's floor and began to sob.

The sound of footsteps caught my ear.

"What the HELL?"

I curled up in a ball, no longer coherent, as Bobby came over to check me.

Nothing mattered anymore.


	2. Wish You Were Here

**6 Months Later...**

**Lake Charles, Louisiana**

_"Hey kid it's me again, would it kill ya to give me a call-" __**message deleted**_

_**Next message**_

_"Hey Sarah, it's Sam. Look, Bobby's really worried about you, he hasn't heard from you in awhile so maybe you should give him a call. Let him know you're alright? Nice job with that shifter in Missouri-" __**message deleted**_

_**Next message**_

_"Hey, you're upset I get it, and I'm sorry you got screwed over but this is starting to piss me off-" "Dean! you aren't helping"- "Shut it Sammy she needs to hear this-"__**message deleted **_

_**No New Messages...**_

I wasn't sure why I even bothered to check my voice mail anymore. It seemed like no matter how many times I switched numbers someone ended up catching wind of my new one.

One would think that I had made it abundantly clear that I didn't want to talk to anyone.

I downed another shot of whiskey, and the bartender gave me a knowing look.

"Family problems?"

I shrugged, turning my gaze to the television above the bar, there was a missing person splashed all over the news.

"Doesn't matter," I grumbled, "Nothing I can do about it now."

I pulled out a wad of cash and dropped it onto the counter, "That should take care of the bill huh?"

I didn't stop to see if the man nodded or not.

* * *

There it was, waiting for me in the parking lot.

That stupid pick up truck.

Every time I saw the stupid thing I got the urge to kick it, or smash it up with a baseball bat, ... but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it.

I lit up a cigarette, and stared the pick up down.

I took a long satisfying drag as my cell phone rang, I hesitated to pull it out of my pocket.

After a few seconds I reluctantly pulled it out and glanced down at the LCD, 'DEAN WINCHESTER' flashed violently across the screen.

Letting it go to voicemail was getting easier and easier these days.

As soon as I was finished with my cigarette I tossed it to the pavement and crushed the butt underneath my boot.

* * *

It was raining again as I pulled up to the Westbound Motel.

The vacancy sign was flickering off and on, which was a good sign for me, since I hadn't slept in 72 hours.

I didn't bother running in, I was going to get wet anyway.

The man behind the counter gave me very perturbed look as I entered the building.

"I need a room for the night."

He glanced towards the door, "single?"

"Yeah."

"$250"

If I hadn't been too tired to argue with the man I might have haggled him down to half that, but truth be told, I didn't much care either way.

It wasn't until I stepped outside that I realized, I should have just kept driving.

The sleek black paint and shining chrome sent me into a slight panic, but I managed to hold it together for just long enough to slip passed the VERY familiar '67 Chevy and towards my room a few doors down.

"Sarah?!"

Sam's voice sent ice spiraling through my veins, and I glanced back to see him retrieving a bag of chips from the vending machine.

I couldn't help but glance across the lot at my baby blue pick up, as if it could magically come to my rescue.

It was like having my heart ripped out all over again, because Gabriel had done what he had promised.

The Winchesters had survived the showdown with Satan.

Sam made a move towards me, and on instinct I stepped back. I couldn't deal with this, not now, it was too soon.

He must have seen that I was prepared to bolt, because he put his hands up, "Look, I just want to talk alright? I... We're worried about-"

A door four doors down swung open, and I flinched, "Hey Sammy I think I found something-"

I knew without turning around that it was Dean.

Sam looked at me, looking very much like a deer in the headlights.

He moved to recover the situation, but it was too late.

"Well I'll be damned."

I winced at the sudden irritation in Dean's voice, and muttered quietly to myself "Fucking Winchesters."


End file.
